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Iranian-Canadians caught in the crossfire

By Allan WoodsOttawa Bureau

Thu., Jan. 19, 2012

OTTAWA—Canada’s sanctions against Iran were meant to stop Tehran’s ability to build nuclear weapons, but they are also having a devastating impact on Canada’s large Iranian diaspora, community leaders say.

Now there are talks underway between the foreign ministry and the federal immigration department to address the effects that a devalued Iranian currency and a ban on financial transactions are having on Iranian-Canadians.

Molouk Dasian, 67, left, and Mahmonir Moshiri, 75, came from Iran to live in Richmond Hill. The devalued Iranian currency is making it harder for them to make ends meet in Canada. (DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR)

It’s a frustrated community — in some cases desperate — that has been waylaid by the squeeze on their homeland. Many say the problems could have been avoided if Ottawa had consulted them before pressing ahead with the sanctions.

“The issue here is what are the unintended side effects and collateral damage to people who are here precisely because they don’t want to deal with these folks in Tehran,” said Alidad Mafinezam, a director with the Iranian Canadian Congress.

The complainants are not regime supporters for Iran, although a majority of the approximately 120,000 Iranians living in Canada tend to oppose the sanctions. They are people like Molouk Dasian, 67, and Mahmonir Moshiri, 75, who came from Iran to live in Richmond Hill with their children and two grandchildren, aged 9 and 7.

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Moshiri’s income comes from rent on an apartment back home. It used to provide her with $400 each month but the inflated Iranian rial means she now gets only $220.

Dasian’s monthly pension from Iran, converted to Canadian dollars, has shrunk to $260 from $500. The small amount the two women receive is eaten up by the costs of medication, food and other living expenses, said Moshiri’s daughter, Shirin.

“They are worried. They see that when they can’t bring in enough money, my husband has to work more to have more income,” she said.

That worry has spread through the entire family. Shirin is looking for part-time work but she’s found jobs to be scarce. If she succeeds, she’ll have to pay for her kids’ afterschool care.

“The government here wants to put pressure on the Iranian government, but it’s not pressure on the Iranian government. It’s pressure on the Iranian people,” she said.

In a sense, Moshiri and Dasian are the lucky ones because they can still get access to their money from Iran. Students from Iran who are studying in Canada can no longer get support from their families because Canadian banks can’t process transactions from Iranian banks.

Iranian expats who call Canada home include entrepreneurs and renowned academics like philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo and Nikahang Kowsar, one of the country’s leading political cartoonists.

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“It’s important to realize there is this general human resource here that needs to be harnessed in different ways,” said Mafinezam.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird acknowledged the “invaluable contributions” that Iranians make to Canada.

But growth both in numbers and influence is also limited by the effects of sanctions on a third group: wealthy Iranians applying to move to Canada as investor-class immigrants. They are people with a net worth of at least $1.6 million ready to invest $800,000 as a condition of their moving to this country.

Applications that were already in the works are now in limbo because banks won’t grant loans to make their mandatory investment. Quebec’s immigration ministry has now suspended its parallel program until Ottawa fine-tunes the rules. Meanwhile Canada is losing out on many millions of dollars of capital and denying entry to people likely to create new jobs at a time when they are desperately needed.

Individuals can request federal permits that would exempt them from the sanctions. But it doesn’t resolve the problem of skittish banks, said Vincent Valai, a Montreal immigration lawyer.

“Having said that, I’m pretty sure that if the Department of Foreign Affairs clarified a bit more the regulations and the exemptions, they would be able to put all their concerns aside and keep doing business.”

Other areas where the sanctions may not apply are poorly understood or little known, the Iranian Canadian Congress says. Iranian-Canadians can still send money back to family members, but few know about this and remittances have now slowed to a trickle.

A dedicated office or official in Ottawa to direct people through the maze of laws and exemptions would help, Mafinezam says. He would also like to see Ottawa designate a single bank to handle legal financial dealings between Iran and Canada.

“If people knew what our Canadian government’s policy specifically is, they’d go along with it,” he said. “The problem is that if you look at the links that Foreign Affairs or Citizenship and Immigration are sending out, even for lawyers they’re really complicated to decipher, let alone for lay people.”

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